The Manitoba government has announced it will ban cosmetic pesticides on lawns, gardens, school grounds, playing fields and health-care centres.
Legislation banning pesticides will be introduced in the next legislative session and will take effect in December 2014.
“Medical experts are clear that synthetic chemical lawn pesticides pose risks to human health, especially in the early stages of life,” conservation minister Gord Mackintosh said in a news release.
“We must reduce exposure to these products where they are not needed.”
The province said groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics has found that “epidemiological evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers… and behavioural problems.”
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Dr. Ellie Weiss, Manitoba’s deputy chief provincial health officer, echoed the sentiment.
“From a risk versus benefit perspective … it is prudent to reduce the risk of pesticide exposure to pregnant women and children,” he said.
Agricultural groups have actively campaigned against prohibition since the province initially announced it was considering a pesticide ban in the winter of 2012. They argue that the science doesn’t justify a ban, and the spread of weeds on municipal land poses a risk to agricultural crops.
Keystone Agricultural Producers president Doug Chorney said last year that farmers are also concerned the ban will harden public sentiment against the use of pesticides on agricultural land.
The province said last week that it plans to strengthen noxious weed management to protect cropland.
It will also introduce a strict integrated pesticide pest management program for all government pesticide applications.
